Using metadata attributes

When creating an object you may assign values to the metadata attributes of the object. The ‘Attributes’ section of the action form provides the respective fields where you may insert values for the metadata attributes of the object. If there is no ‘Attributes’ section, the type of the object created has an empty metadata profile or none at all.

You can assign values to the metadata attributes of an object or change existing values also after the object has been created.

      Select Aktion  Change    Properties  in the action menu of the object concerned and go to the ‘Attributes’ section of the action form. There you may insert, change or delete meta­data. An eventual grouping of attributes is indicated by enclosing the group in a sepa­rate box with an optional group name.

      Some attributes allow specifying multiple values by clicking more values next to the input field. You may delete values by clicking delete next to the value field.

      By clicking on [Reset properties] you may delete all values shown in the ‘Attributes’ section.

All attributes with values are shown below the description of an object in the folder listing. If the view options are set so that no descriptions are shown or are only shown in compact form, attributes will appear as tool­tips of either the info icon or the one-line description, respectively. Also, all attributes are shown on the info page of an object.

The info page of an object shows the attributes that have a value, also indicating the name of the underlying metadata profile and, where appropriate, the names of attribute groups (e.g. “Dublin Core”).

When copying objects, eventual metadata attributes are also copied.

When searching for objects in BSCW you may use all metadata attributes (see 3.7.1 The search form). The search form offers to make use of metadata attributes in search criteria.

In website folders you can display the metadata attributes of single objects as well as object tables with selected metadata attributes. You can also filter content listings of website folders making use of the values of certain metadata attributes (see 8.6.5 Using text elements and 8.6.4 Using BSCW elements). For these operations you need to know the so-called key of a metadata attribute, which is not given on the info page of a meta­data profile. An example is the key bscw:keywords denoting the metadata attribute ‘Tags’.

You can obtain a complete list of the metadata keys of a metadata profile including the user-defined attributes by

      selecting action  Specification  in the action menu of a metadata profile. This will list all keys of the attributes in the profile as a text file, one key per line.